Kings GM Dean Lombardi: 'What happened to Mike Richards is a tragedy'

Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi believes embattled forward Mike Richards should have approached him to discuss the issues that led to the termination of his contract.

"The reality is that I was 'played,'" Lombardi told the Los Angeles Times' Lisa Dillman. "My only regret, though, is that I wish Mike had been able to come to me with his problem - and that was the last message I left for him on his cellphone when I learned of the incident and all the history leading up to the incident."

The GM says he's struggled to move beyond the incident himself.

"Without a doubt, the realization of what happened to Mike Richards is the most traumatic episode of my career," Lombardi said.

"At times, I think that I will never recover from it. It is difficult to trust anyone right now, and you begin to question whether you can trust your own judgment. The only thing I can think of that would be worse would be suspecting your wife of cheating on you for five years and then finding out in fact it was true."

The NHL Players' Association reached a settlement with the league Friday that resolved the dispute over the contract termination. Los Angeles terminated Richards' contract after the forward was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance over the summer.

The union filed a grievance in August, contesting the voiding of the deal. Friday's settlement resolved the dispute, but he will reportedly still count against the Kings' salary cap until 2031.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly addressed concerns that Lombardi and the Kings were able to successfully circumvent the salary cap.

"The League actively monitored each stage of this dispute from the time of the initial contract termination to the point at which the case was settled, during which time we were in frequent contact with both the Club and the NHLPA," Daly told Frank Seravalli of TSN.

"If the settlement was simply a disguised way to get favorable Cap treatment, we certainly would have considered it to be a circumvention and acted accordingly. But this wasn't that. Far from it. There is absolutely zero concern that anything that transpired here could in any way be considered a 'circumvention' of the CBA. Anyone who believes to the contrary is clearly not privy to the facts."

Lombardi was adamant he did everything he could do to help Richards, but it wasn't enough.

"Anyone close enough to me knows how much I loved Mike Richards," the GM said.

"I tried everything with Mike - meeting with him constantly, sending him to concussion specialists, traveling in the offseason to visit with him at his summer home - and everything failed. I heard the rumors that Mike might have some off-ice issues, but I refused to believe that they were true despite some obvious signs."

Richards played parts of four seasons with the Kings after being acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in 2011, splitting 2014-15 between the NHL and the AHL's Manchester Monarchs.

Lombardi says he's learned from the situation and plans to take steps to become more aware in the future.

"I believe that what happened to Mike Richards is a tragedy and I cannot let it go," he said. "My short-term goal is to win championships; my long-term goal is to eventually become more involved with groups studying the changing values that are becoming increasingly evident in sport and their root causes.

"I certainly believe that Mike Richards must be held accountable for his actions - but when a player who at one time symbolized everything that was special about the sport can become caught in such a destructive spiral, then I believe the institution of sport must begin to examine its level of culpability."